You know, that advice about leaving something before you revise it, is so true. Even when you think it's perfect, wait a while. Write something else, read a bunch or go on a holiday then come back. Fresh eyes see every fault. Well mostly. Or they aren't fresh enough. I was at a night with Raymond E Feist and he said give your characters some weird quirk, and the reference was a character who liked to eat raw onions as if they were apples.
This is so true in many things. I taught 1st grade. My little scholars would come back smarter after a two week Christmas break. Other teachers could verify this.
I love your videos! Very helpful and inspiring. And also I really appreciate how you deliver your advice. If I just hear advice (no matter how well it is said) it doesn't stick fully with me. You have just the right way of combining what you say with showing notes, quotes etc. Makes it way easier and more effective for me to follow and really take it all in. Thanks for your awesome work!
Gonna go rewatch this one on the tv with a coffee and take notes. Any chance you could do one on Haruki Murakami? Even if it’s less researched? (I know you went ALL in on this one so)
Ya know what, as a fellow RUclipsr, I bet if you did this type of video as your channels niche (studying great authors quotes/teachings and organizing all of it) then each individual would blow up along with your channel. On that note, I’m going to subscribe
Thank you for compiling his best advice! Hemingway's response and suggestion to his friend wondering why he made him cry so much in his book is priceless!
I've read before that romance should be avoided in murder mysteries, as a serious relationship will detract from the plot... I don't think anyone writes them anymore, though.
So, I’ve read a lot about writing and it’s funny how some advice has told me to never base characters off real people and others like Hemingway said otherwise. I guess whatever advice hits home for me is all I can ask for.
Maybe a mix? Never admit you based a character off of someone else, and maybe you can make the character unique by adding or subtracting features and details. But mostly never admit it. The world has been wondering who Ron Weasley is ever since JK Rowling admitted that Hermione Granger is basically the best, successful version of herself.
@@thatfamily2917 I was mostly referring to how there can be conflicting information about writing. For myself, I’ve found diving into human psychology has helped me understand the human condition a little better and making sure personality traits and behaviors correlate with each other, but I don’t see anything wrong with using real life people as long as they know I’ve used them as inspiration. This also could backfire if it’s a person you don’t like. So, discretion is advised.
@@Melleanah right? I have a friend who based her villain on a chick she hates. Thing is, the chick in question is a queen bee and may actually buy the book when it comes out just to take the moral high ground. If she figures out the villain's inspiration she's gonna be ticked.
@@thatfamily2917 I remember reading a bird by bird by Ann Lamott, and she like Hemingway, uses real life people as inspiration. But her advice was to change the persons physical descriptions, name, ethnicity, nationality enough for them to be unrecognizable. I believe this is generally good advice-but some people have such good intuitions that it might not even matter. So it depends on if she can pick up on these signs within the book or not.
Hey , thanks. Now, instead of dispair, I think I’m doing pretty good. I’m 3 yrs and 300k words into my story. In the second year I discovered I was writing a science fiction. Lady Luck showed me last week how the alien connection actually is crucial to the Main Character . This week I’m taking the week off. So happy am I. This author shit works. Yeah, I will be dumping a lot of words, don’t worry. And it’s based on a true person, no kidding. Curious? Ok. An alien kid decides to come to Earth for his science fair project. He doesn’t know his councilor is using him as a probe.
If you want to dive deeper into Hemingway's work, let me recommend "Reading Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises" by H.R. Stoneback. It is part of a series in which his novels and short stories are discussed in depth. I reread "Sun" with the book in hand. I'd read a chapter of the novel, then Stoneback's chapter discussing it. He points out in depth the background behind the characters and their actions (for example, Jake's long walk through Paris parallels a Catholic pilgrim's walk through the city, point for point). The books are expensive, so I used my library's interlibrary loan to get a copy for free.
Hi Bookfox, Thanks for the video! I have a ‘How to Write like Hemingway’ book that I still haven’t gotten to but now I feel like I don’t need to read it! 😂 I have a question about the importance of reading widely for an aspiring novelist. Is there an email we can send those kinds of questions to? Also my husband was a student of yours at Biola and pointed me to your channel!
Oh, you married Scotty! Cool, gotta thank him for me for sending you to my channel. :) I think reading widely is super important for an aspiring novelists. But it's also important to read the type of books you want to write. Is that what you mean?
@@Bookfox yes-well to give a little background, I applied for a Master’s in Creative Writing and made it to the final round of the interview process, but I did not get in; their biggest piece of advice to me was to read more novels so I can start to adopt the mannerisms and styles of authors I like. I’m the type of person that has a hard time embarking on an assignment without knowing how it’s going to get me to a goal. And it just seems like if I read a novel here, a novel there, I may just flounder around not really getting closer to my ultimate goal of writing compelling fiction that others want to read.
Writing with your body! Huge insight. Going to put that and the iceberg to use on these drafts
You know, that advice about leaving something before you revise it, is so true. Even when you think it's perfect, wait a while. Write something else, read a bunch or go on a holiday then come back. Fresh eyes see every fault. Well mostly. Or they aren't fresh enough.
I was at a night with Raymond E Feist and he said give your characters some weird quirk, and the reference was a character who liked to eat raw onions as if they were apples.
This is so true in many things.
I taught 1st grade. My little scholars would come back smarter after a two week Christmas break. Other teachers could verify this.
I love your videos! Very helpful and inspiring. And also I really appreciate how you deliver your advice. If I just hear advice (no matter how well it is said) it doesn't stick fully with me. You have just the right way of combining what you say with showing notes, quotes etc. Makes it way easier and more effective for me to follow and really take it all in. Thanks for your awesome work!
I appreciate those kind words! Happy to help you along the writing journey.
Welcome back. I needed to watch this again.
People in 2025 will never know the lore behind this video.
Oh wait... Nevermind 😅.
Just quickly, Dostoevsky was sent to a work camp under the Tzar, not under the Soviets as the video suggests.
Gonna go rewatch this one on the tv with a coffee and take notes. Any chance you could do one on Haruki Murakami? Even if it’s less researched? (I know you went ALL in on this one so)
Ya know what, as a fellow RUclipsr, I bet if you did this type of video as your channels niche (studying great authors quotes/teachings and organizing all of it) then each individual would blow up along with your channel. On that note, I’m going to subscribe
Yes, it took such an enormous amount of research! I love Murakami and have read everything of his, so it would be fun ...
@@Bookfox I'm subbing in the hopes that you do this niche (research and broadcast famous authors). You can be our writing sensei
Thank you for compiling his best advice! Hemingway's response and suggestion to his friend wondering why he made him cry so much in his book is priceless!
Ha ha, I know, Hemingway is so Hemingway!
I've read before that romance should be avoided in murder mysteries, as a serious relationship will detract from the plot... I don't think anyone writes them anymore, though.
Hmmm, I wouldn't say you should ever avoid romance. It's always a draw no matter what genre you're writing.
@@Bookfox I believe it was said for the killer only, however. I do agree with you that a relationship adds to the draw in any work of fiction.
Oh, that makes sense to avoid it for the killer, if your goal is that the killer shouldn't be too sympathetic.
So, I’ve read a lot about writing and it’s funny how some advice has told me to never base characters off real people and others like Hemingway said otherwise.
I guess whatever advice hits home for me is all I can ask for.
Maybe a mix? Never admit you based a character off of someone else, and maybe you can make the character unique by adding or subtracting features and details. But mostly never admit it. The world has been wondering who Ron Weasley is ever since JK Rowling admitted that Hermione Granger is basically the best, successful version of herself.
@@thatfamily2917 I was mostly referring to how there can be conflicting information about writing.
For myself, I’ve found diving into human psychology has helped me understand the human condition a little better and making sure personality traits and behaviors correlate with each other, but I don’t see anything wrong with using real life people as long as they know I’ve used them as inspiration. This also could backfire if it’s a person you don’t like. So, discretion is advised.
@@Melleanah right? I have a friend who based her villain on a chick she hates. Thing is, the chick in question is a queen bee and may actually buy the book when it comes out just to take the moral high ground. If she figures out the villain's inspiration she's gonna be ticked.
@@thatfamily2917 I remember reading a bird by bird by Ann Lamott, and she like Hemingway, uses real life people as inspiration. But her advice was to change the persons physical descriptions, name, ethnicity, nationality enough for them to be unrecognizable. I believe this is generally good advice-but some people have such good intuitions that it might not even matter. So it depends on if she can pick up on these signs within the book or not.
Wow, it only took you 30 seconds to get to the guts of your talk. Some videos take minutes to get to their first point. Thanks.
Yeah, I hate people who purposefully delay. I got so much to say, might as well get to it!
James Patterson says you NEED an outline as a writer. And now Hemingway is critical of writers with outlines. Everything is wrong 🥲
not wrong, just different. do whatever works best for you! every writer has their own process.
You're gonna hear a ton of contradictory advice. Just figure out what works for you.
Hey , thanks. Now, instead of dispair, I think I’m doing pretty good. I’m 3 yrs and 300k words into my story. In the second year I discovered I was writing a science fiction. Lady Luck showed me last week how the alien connection actually is crucial to the Main Character . This week I’m taking the week off. So happy am I.
This author shit works.
Yeah, I will be dumping a lot of words, don’t worry. And it’s based on a true person, no kidding.
Curious? Ok. An alien kid decides to come to Earth for his science fair project. He doesn’t know his councilor is using him as a probe.
Excellent. Thank you!
If you want to dive deeper into Hemingway's work, let me recommend "Reading Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises" by H.R. Stoneback. It is part of a series in which his novels and short stories are discussed in depth. I reread "Sun" with the book in hand. I'd read a chapter of the novel, then Stoneback's chapter discussing it. He points out in depth the background behind the characters and their actions (for example, Jake's long walk through Paris parallels a Catholic pilgrim's walk through the city, point for point). The books are expensive, so I used my library's interlibrary loan to get a copy for free.
Thanks for the recommendation!
47 times! Thank you for this.
I know, right?
Not sure using his four failed marriages as a measure of his passion and his status as a lover is a positive thing.
Ha. Well, that's true. But he was a very carnal man.
@@Bookfox that may be the single best word for him. Lol
Some of this is good advice, but I've never liked Hemingway.
Most of EH's advice is bs. Good writing is about voice. He had a good voice.
Thank you!
Superb video. I'm curious, did he really say "write drunk, edit sober"?
I think that's an urban legend. Still, it's an interesting quote!
Wow! So much good content packed into such a simple video. Hemmingway would be proud ;)
I aim to make Big Papa happy!
Thank you this was fantastic 🎉
You're very welcome!
Hi Bookfox,
Thanks for the video! I have a ‘How to Write like Hemingway’ book that I still haven’t gotten to but now I feel like I don’t need to read it! 😂
I have a question about the importance of reading widely for an aspiring novelist. Is there an email we can send those kinds of questions to?
Also my husband was a student of yours at Biola and pointed me to your channel!
Oh, you married Scotty! Cool, gotta thank him for me for sending you to my channel. :)
I think reading widely is super important for an aspiring novelists. But it's also important to read the type of books you want to write. Is that what you mean?
@@Bookfox yes-well to give a little background, I applied for a Master’s in Creative Writing and made it to the final round of the interview process, but I did not get in; their biggest piece of advice to me was to read more novels so I can start to adopt the mannerisms and styles of authors I like.
I’m the type of person that has a hard time embarking on an assignment without knowing how it’s going to get me to a goal. And it just seems like if I read a novel here, a novel there, I may just flounder around not really getting closer to my ultimate goal of writing compelling fiction that others want to read.
So I guess my question is: How do I get the most out of my reading if my intention is to write a novel one day?
Is this a re upload?
Yes -- the last version got taken down because I had a clip of a bullfight in it.
@@Bookfox that's crazy
@@Bookfoxso glad you got it back up!
@@Bookfox I’m glad. I had only been through a few minutes and then had to stop and when I went back to finish it, it was gone 😂
@@mattfarr137 Same here. I was thoroughly annoyed with RUclips.